John,

Each year, the industrial egg industry hands down a death sentence to more than 330 million day-old chicks, simply because they are male.

Some are gassed to death. Others are fed into industrial grinders while still alive.

Within minutes of hatching, these chicks are treated as waste — destroyed as part of a system that values profit over life. And in most of the EU, this cruelty is still completely legal.

But we have the power to change that, right now.

The EU is rewriting its farm-animal welfare laws for the first time in years. And lawmakers are deciding whether to include a full ban on chick-culling in the new legislation. If we act now, we can force that ban into law.

Sign the petition demanding that the EU ban the killing of day-old male chicks.

Scientists have confirmed that chicks can feel pain and fear from the moment they hatch because their nervous systems are fully functional. Yet millions are handled like objects on fast-moving production lines, crying out as they’re sorted and slaughtered.

But it doesn’t have to be this way. Countries like Germany and France have already banned the practice, and humane alternatives — like in-ovo sexing, which identifies the embryo’s sex before hatching — are already being used. There’s no justification for allowing millions of chicks to be killed when humane solutions exist.

If we act now, we can help secure a clear ban in the new laws before another generation of chicks is killed.

Act now to demand an EU-wide ban on chick-culling.

Last year, people power worked: our pressure pushed the Mexican government to pass a historic ban on dolphin captivity. Now with the EU reviewing its laws, a wave of public pressure can end this practice once and for all.